Tips for Effective Blackboard Grade Center Use Cont.

Tips for Effective Blackboard Grade Center Use Cont. Generated Image, DeepAI April 2024

04/11/2024

Kristina Wendricks and Mish McIntyre, Instructional Designers, OLT

In March, we explored how to efficiently use Blackboard Grade Center organization, Last Access and Show/Hide columns. In this post, we will continue our exploration with some time-saving tips for productivity. We will discuss how CCRI instructors can make their life easier with color coding and Smart Views in Blackboard Grade Center.

Tip 1: Efficiencies with Color Coding Your Grade Center

Blackboard Grade Center is a powerful feature that allows instructors to quickly identify trends in graded assignments. Color coding provides quick visual feedback for instructors to see how students are doing in the course. For example, an instructor could set red text for failing grades below 60%, yellow for 60-79%, and green for 80% and above.

Color coding will help you instantly identify certain patterns: you may quickly spot a lot of red grades in a particular assignment and plan for a review of the related material/skills.

To color code your grade book, follow the steps:

Go to Course Management > Control Panel.
Access Grade Center > Full Grade Center.
Navigate to Manage > Grading Color Codes.
By Default, color coding is off, click the checkbox for “Enable grading color codes.”
Set up color scheme for grading status or set up your own rules for color coding by adding criteria in the Grade Ranges section.

You can set the color codes for assignments that need grading or set up criteria tied to the grade range to identify students who are following below a certain threshold. The video linked below demonstrates setting up color codes by grading status and two different grading range criteria.

Tip 2: Using Smart Views to Quickly Find Data in Grade Center

When your course Grade Center includes many students and columns, it can become unmanageable. A Smart View in Blackboard is a customizable view of grades and student data that allows instructors to organize and display information in a way that makes sense for how they manage their course. Smart Views are filters for your grade book.

Several Smart Views are available by default, but you can also create your own:

Go to Course Management > Control Panel.
Access Grade Center > Full Grade Center.
Navigate to Manage > Smart Views.
“Star” default Smart Views you want to utilize or create your own.

There are many scenarios for when you could use a Smart View in the Grade Center. The default Smart Views allow you to filter by “test” or just “discussion.” The video example linked below demonstrates how you can create a Smart View using “user” criterion, select multiple users and add them to the same Smart View. This approach can be used for clinical groups facilitated by different instructors at different clinical sites.

Online Learning and Technology offers 1:1 consultations for instructors using the Grade Center. Please submit a ticket to schedule your appointment.